Jadeveon Clowney drawing double teams, and praise, in Houston

In his first two NFL seasons, Texans defensive end Jadeveon Clowney was a bit of a disappointment as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. This year, things are different.

Clowney hit Andrew Luck twice, was in on a tackle behind the line of scrimmage, finished with three solo tackles and was all over the field as a constant threat to the Colts’ offense as the Texans won last night.

“I think Clowney just – I think he’s very disruptive,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said after the game. “I really think that he’s coming into his own. People ask me a lot about moving positions. He plays all over the front. If you really study the tape and you know what you’re looking at then you can see him in about four or five different positions. I think he’s a very active player. He loves to play the games. He wants to do well for his teammates. He’s really come into his own this year. He’s a very difficult guy to block.”

Clowney was finding himself double-teamed regularly by the Colts, but he said he enjoyed that because it was freeing up his teammates to make tackles.

“Other guys are making plays,” Clowney said. “That’s why we depend on all the guys – not just me. On this team, we’ve got a lot of playmakers, a lot of guys that are good players that came out here and played a good game today and finished.”

In the absence of J.J. Watt, Clowney is emerging as one of the keys on a Texans defense that is carrying Houston to the top of the AFC South.

Not hard to figure out. He was a star as a DE in college then the idiots who drafted him tried to make him a linebacker. Now that he’s back at DE he’s playing like a star again. This could have happened much sooner.

I was watching him for many snaps last night and he does have some sort of next level strength/explosiveness. The OT couldent handle him, they had the back or a TE doubling him almost every play and he was brushing them aside with uncanny strength. It reminded me of how Reggie White use to toss around 300lb men, really impressive.

I barely remember him getting mentioned against the Vikings. With the beat up o-line they’re playing with he should have been back there every play. Yeah he caused issues once or twice, but I think the Texans are really missing Watt to take the focus off Clowney.

Commonsense1986: They definitely miss Watt. Any team would. Clowney hasn’t recorded a ton of sacks this year. The Vikings, especially, got the ball out too quickly for him
to be much of a factor on pass plays, but Clowney has been awesome against the run all year. He leads the league in tackles for loss and he blew up the Vikings backs for loss on run plays several times in that game. He’s a much better player than he was his first two years, probably because he’s finally healthy.

Not hard to figure out. He was a star as a DE in college then the idiots who drafted him tried to make him a linebacker. Now that he’s back at DE he’s playing like a star again. This could have happened much sooner.
————————————————–
Except you haven’t figured it out – he was a star as a 4-3 DE, and when he came in they made him a 3-4 OLB which pretty much does the same thing. Now he’s playing the same position as Watt – 3-4 DE which is totally different, and he’s thriving.

I barely remember him getting mentioned against the Vikings. With the beat up o-line they’re playing with he should have been back there every play. Yeah he caused issues once or twice, but I think the Texans are really missing Watt to take the focus off Clowney.
———————————————————

You either didn’t watch the game or are a Vikings fan. He had 4 TFL’s and stopped the run all game long, and Vikings fans kept saying their “beat up o-line” was actually playing better than the starters – so which is it?